During the twentieth century, astronomers extended their capabilities by developing telescopes and detectors that were sensitive to radio waves, microwaves, infrared and ultraviolet radiation, X-rays and gamma rays. All these forms of electromagnetic radiation, along with visible light, are emitted by the Sun.

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The Sun is seen as a blindingly bright, yellow object in the sky. The part of the Sun that you normally see is called the photosphere (meaning ‘sphere of light’); this is best thought of as the ‘surface’ of the Sun, although it is very different from the surface of a planet such as Earth. Its diameter is about 1.4 million kilometres, making the Sun's volume roughly one million times that of the Earth. The photosphere is not solid. Rather, it is a thin layer of hot gaseous mater

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Perhaps with good reason, the aye-aye has been dubbed by some ‘the strangest of all primates’ and LoM provides some of the reasons [p. 243]. Little wonder that, as DA points out, the species was first classified as a rodent like them, it has powerful incisor teeth that grow continuously.

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Coevolution also underpins the relationship between many tree squirrels and the trees that house them. The creation of food caches as a ‘winter-larder’ is mutually beneficial, partly because squirrels are sufficiently profligate in their habits to ensure that many stores are overlooked. Stealing by neighbours is so common that such over-provision may be essential – it's not through forgetfulness or lack of skill; grey squirrels appear able to detect nuts buried as deep as 30 cm below th

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In LoM, DA vividly describes one particular evolutionary development associated with tree dwelling – taking to the air [pp. 221–227]. The gliding habit evolved independently in different mammalian lineages and yet the anatomical modifications that allow it are similar in, for example, flying squirrels and the unrelated colugo. In particular, the ‘sail of skin’ [p. 221], technically termed a patagium, stretches between the limbs – and a good deal further in the colugo, acting as an e

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Specialisation generally implies the possession of adaptations that make animals particularly effective or efficient in one or more aspects of their lives. In many of the examples used in other units in this series, mammals are likely to possess adaptations related to the acquisition and/or processing of food.

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You are about to meet some very large numbers, expressed in scientific notation, and some new units. The new units are those that are used to measure the amount of solar energy received by a part of the Earth's surface. Since plants are dependent on light for photosynthesis, the amount of plant material that caAuthor(s): The Open University

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The skill of thinking in a scientific way is as much a part of being a scientist as is knowing facts – perhaps more so. In this series of units, you'll not only come across facts about particular techniques, such as radio transmitters and bat detectors, but also the tactics that scientists use to invesAuthor(s): The Open University

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You may be familiar with salt licks that are provided for domesticated cattle. In the wild, grass is also often low in minerals (e.g. it has almost no sodium and very little calcium), so grazers may have to go to extraordinary lengths to supplement their diet with additional minerals obtained from the most unlikely places. LoM gives some examples, but the most impressive activity takes place in the caves of Mount Elgon in Kenya [pp. 113–114]. You'll probably recall this spectacular footage

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You know by now that plants can synthesise all the complex molecules that make up their tissues and seeds from very simple molecules – water, carbon dioxide and minerals from the soil. Mammals, on the other hand, need to take in many complex molecules ready-made, and some foods do not contain the right amounts or the right mix of nutrients. They have evolved various strategies to overcome the shortfalls, some of which are described in this section.

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The odd-toed ungulates (comprising the order Perissodactyla), the horses, tapirs and rhinoceroses, are hindgut fermenters, as are elephants. Update Table 2 with this information. These animals have a relatively simple, small undivided stomach, but this time an even larger caecum and colon where the microbes are housed and whe

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You've seen plenty of evidence that reproduction in rodents – more precisely what I've called their reproductive strategies – are versatile and varied. You'll appreciate that ‘versatile and varied’ describes the range of sexual habits seen in the rodents as a group, not the behaviour within a single species. As DA says, some are monogamous, which means that individuals mate exclusively with one partner, over at least a single breeding cycle or season. The marmots are an example of a g

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How evolution proceeds is obviously of central importance when studying mammals. Of fundamental importance to the way evolution works is the notion of natural selection, and in S182_3 Studying mammals: chisellers I'll be talking about what most researchers regard as this ‘single most important idea in biology’. But before that, I want to describe some of the adaptations evident in insect eaters.

From your reading of LoM you'll appreciate that natural selection promotes the ev

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Radiation has energy and momentum, so we can use the molecules of a fluid such as air as an analogy for the photons of radiation. A detector pointing forwards along the direction of our motion (if any) will encounter a greater number of photons than a detector pointing backwards; in other words, it will record a higher intensity of 3 K radiation. (If the detector is tuned to a narrow band of frequencies one would also have to take account of the change in observed spectrum, but the principle

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Mercury compounds have no effect on plants, but adverse effects have been demonstrated in a wide range of animals, including fish and amphibians (Boening, 2000). Very high levels of mercury have been found in the livers of American alligators in the severely polluted Everglades of Florida; these can be as much as 400 times greater than levels in alligators born and reared in alligator farms (Linder and Grillitsch, 2000).

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DDT is very effective in controlling pests, being very toxic to insects, and is cheap to produce. Its effectiveness is enhanced because it is very persistent, remaining active in the environment for a long time. This increases its value as an insecticide to farmers because one application lasts a long time, but is also a major reason why it poses a threat to wildlife and to human health. Although the agricultural use of DDT was banned in most developed countries 30 years ago, it can still be

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This unit examines why water shortages are predicted as a result of the world's growing population and the importance of access to clean and safe drinking water in public health. It looks at the distribution of water throughout the world and problems with contamination, topics of wide general interest.

Information is everywhere these days – in the form of images, written records, tables and graphs. In this part of the unit we want you to realise how useful graphs can be to analyse numerical information, and to show you some techniques that can help you decide how reliable this numerical information is.

It's often difficult to spot a trend or a relationship in a long list of numbers. Because the human mind is highly adapted to recognising visual patterns, it is often much easier to u

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